ST. PAUL, Minn.—Wanted: Capable executives to fill the next cabinet for Minnesota’s governor. Prestige: High. Pay: Good. The problem: The job may never materialize.

One big challenge facing the two men awaiting a likely recount in the governor’s race is how to put together a good team amid the uncertainty.

Barring a surprise concession or sudden shift in votes, neither Democrat Mark Dayton nor Republican Tom Emmer will be declared the winner until mid-December. Dayton holds a roughly 8,750-vote lead—small enough to force an automatic hand recount that wouldn’t start until after Thanksgiving.

That has the two would-be governors in limbo.

“It’s sort of like driving the car the way you’re not supposed to—one foot on the gas pedal and the other on the brake,” Dayton said on Minnesota Public Radio on Friday. Emmer hasn’t appeared or spoken in public since early Wednesday.

The next governor is supposed to take his oath on Jan. 3 and won’t have much time after then to start tackling a massive budget deficit.

By this time eight years ago, Republican Gov.-elect Tim Pawlenty had introduced his transition chief, begun collecting resumes for commissioner posts and started to sketch out a governing plan.

Charlie Weaver, the Pawlenty transition leader and later the governor’s chief of staff, said the window is too short to wait out a result.

“The decisions in a transition range from big decisions like how we are going to raise the revenue or commit the cuts to solve a billion-dollar crisis to who gets invited to the inaugural ball,” Weaver said.

He said Emmer’s task is slightly less daunting because in a pinch he could easily keep remaining Pawlenty administration officials in place. Dayton would be building the first Democratic cabinet from the ground up in 24 years.

John Stanoch, who was campaign chairman for former Democratic Gov. Rudy Perpich, suspects there will be immense interest in the dozens of slots the new governor will fill despite the uncertainty. But he doubts much ground work was laid before the election.

“There is almost superstition about discussing these matters until the election is complete,” Stanoch said. He added, “now the rubber hits the road and you’re saying, who are the people who can help me translate these policies I talked about on the campaign trail into governance for the state of Minnesota.”

Dayton said he has two teams at work. One is preparing for a potential recount and the other is focused on the transition.

Emmer spokesman Carl Kuhl said that while the candidates steered clear of cabinet talk during the campaign, preliminary plans were in the works.

“Tom had said often throughout the campaign that he thought he was prepared to be the governor,” Kuhl said. “He’s had a lot of thought about what an administration would look like for some time.”

After winning in 2002, Pawlenty and his advisers spent the 60 days before his inauguration vetting candidates for top jobs, consulting with legislators and drafting his first budget. Weaver said Pawlenty’s team met with vanquished opponents from the primary and general elections to discuss their ideas he wanted to pursue.

Pawlenty had a state allowance and office space for his transition. Until their election is settled, neither Dayton nor Emmer will have that. Both candidates will meet separately with Pawlenty next week about the eventual changeover.

“I don’t know that it would be wise to have dueling governor-elects and dueling transition offices,” Pawlenty said Thursday.

There’s a chance the race won’t be resolved before the scheduled inaugural. The trailing candidate can try to fight to overturn the recount result in a lawsuit, which could take months to work through.

Under the state constitution, Pawlenty would remain as governor until his successor is certified.

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